How do I use iMessage on my iphone 4 when it has a deactivated number?

But I don't have an old iPhone to test it out😊

OK I will ask the water cooler

Use your old 3GS as test object and keep me posted.

When I tried to set up the old 3GS for imessage I used the same ID as the one I am using for imessage on my ip5 and I just got a message on my ip5 that the other phone is using imessage with that ID. However on the 3GS it still says waiting for activation......

Now this is weird. After the message I got on the ip5 saying the thing about the old 3GS using the ID for imessage, I check the 3GS and it still says waiting for activation in imessage, it has send & receive set to the ID and can be reached is the ID and the phone is connected to wifi. I sent a test message to myself and it was sent to my ip5 and ipad. Go figure

😁

Well...it only took me about an hour but I believe I figured something out...not sure what exactly fixed it, but here are a couple things I didn't see in this thread, that I did. 1) Settings > Cellular > and then turned Cellular Data off, and also turned Roaming to off. 2) I noticed in Settings > FaceTime that my Apple ID was blue, and then beneath that it says "YOU CAN BE REACHED..." and the same email address listed above, is also listed here but it is in black text. What I realized is, you actually have to touch that text, and a checkmark will appear to the left of that.

Hope that all helps someone else out.

Thanks